Corporate Social Responsibility as a managerial learning process

The purpose of this paper is twofold. 1) We propose for the first time in the literature a theory (managerial learning hypothesis) that may explain why managers engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR). 2) We use an intuitive empirical methodology (Edmans et al. 2017) to test the relevance/irrelevance of our new theory. The idea behind our main contribution is that managers engage in CSR to learn new relevant information from other informed stakeholders. In return, managers will use both the new information and other information they already have to choose the optimal level of firm’s investment (Jayaraman and Wu, 2019). Therefore, we propose to examine whether a strong CSR engagement improves revelatory efficiency (Edmans et al. 2012, 2017). The latter accounts for the extent to which stock prices reveal new information to managers that will help them make value-maximizing choices. Our findings suggest that CSR activities do not allow firm’s managers to extract new information from their stock prices and ultimately improve the efficiency of their investment choices.

The value of political independent supervisory boards: Evidence from Indonesian dual board setting

We investigate whether political independent supervisory boards (political I-SBs) help companies to reduce their corporate risks in the setting of Indonesian two-tier board system. This study is different from other studies in several ways. First, while most prior studies examine the effectiveness of independent boards in one-tier board setting, we use dual board system. This system promotes the strategic role of political I-SBs. Second, we use two measures of corporate risks: operating and market risks. Based on 1,176 firm-year observations for operating risk analysis and 1,254 firm-year observations for market risk analysis, we find that firms with political I-SBs have lower operating and market risks than firms with non- politically connected independent SBs. We also control for endogeneity problem using GMM (Generalized Method of Moments) method, and the results are still consistent.

The Impact of Financial Sector Sustainability Guidelines and Regulations on the Financial Stability of South American Banks

Sustainability risks represent a significant concern for the banking industry. Consequently, financial regulators created financial sector sustainability guidelines and regulations. However, the effect of these policies on banks’ financial stability is unclear. Hence, this study analyzes 149 banks in 17 countries in Latin America to explore the impact of financial sector sustainability guidelines and regulations on the banking industry. We use the Z-Score to measure the financial stability of banks in countries with and without financial sector sustainability guidelines and regulations. Based on panel regression, our results suggest significant differences between banks in countries with and without financial sector sustainability guidelines and regulations. We conclude that sustainable finance regulations promote financial stability as well as sustainable banking practices.

The Role of Political Connections and Family Ownership in Increasing Firm Value

In the face of business competition, a company strategy is needed by seeking and exploiting opportunities in the business environment, one of which is through political connections. Ownership structure plays an essential role in the company to determine the firm performance. The high concentration of family ownership has the power to reduce agency conflicts between management and stakeholders in a company. Concentrated ownership can serve as corporate governance mechanism for better and effective monitoring of management. This study was conducted to determine empirical evidence of the effect of political connections and family ownership structure on firm value. The sample in this study was 390 data of the manufacturing company. The data analysis used is moderating regression analysis. The results of this study are a positive influence of political connections and family ownership structure on firm value. The results showed that the more the company had a strong political connection and was controlled by the family, the more the firm value would increase. The interaction of political connections can strengthen the influence of family ownership on firm value. It proves that the family ownership structure plays a role in determining political connections in Indonesia, especially in manufacturing companies. The existence of empirical evidence that shows that the firm value controlled by a politically connected family is higher than companies that are not connected politically, which implies investors to invest in companies that are politically connected and companies controlled by families with majority ownership because it is proven to increase firm value.

Basel capital requirements, portfolio shift and bank lending in Africa

Bank lending is a major source of income for a bank. Compliance with higher Basel capital requirements (CAR) portends serious implication for distribution of loan portfolio across different sectors. The objective of the study is to examine African banks’ responses to higher CAR in terms of portfolio shift. The study used descriptive statistics and ANOVA for panel data of African commercial banks that have implemented Basel II or III CAR for the period 2000 and 2018. Based on the results of our analysis, implementation of higher Basel CAR by African banks revealed four key findings. Firstly, our results suggest that higher Basel CAR particularly Basel III reduced total loans for South African banks. Secondly, African banks engage in portfolio shift with higher Basel levels. Thirdly, higher Basel capital increased banks' capital ratios in Africa, but some banks are still characterized by low equity. Fourthly, African banks reduce lending to high risk-weighted loans such as real estate and commercial loans except for South African banks which increased lending to commercial loans with higher Basel CAR. Lastly, this study proffers key insight into the lending behaviour of African banks with the implementation of higher Basel CAR.

Nordic green bond issuers’ views on the upcoming EU Green Bond Standard

The green bond market is growing and becoming increasingly important in green finance and for the transition to a low-carbon economy. Still, the green bond market is to a large extent unstandardised. There is no commonly agreed definition of the term ‘green’. This has been seen as one of the biggest challenges when it comes to the development of the green bond market. The need of a unified EU standard has been raised and as an effect the establishment of the EU Green Bond Standard is now in development. However, new standards might not only bring advantages, but also challenges. Striking the right balance of strictness might be hard. The research has been conducted through qualitative method with semi-structured interviews. Nine interviews were held during November and December 2020. The data was then analysed through thematic coding in order to find patterns of meaning. The results show that Nordic green bond issuers overall are positive towards the EU Green Bond Standard. The EU GBS has a good aim, to harmonise and enlarge the green bond market. However, the standard brings challenges that are to a large extent known challenges which the EU GBS aims to address, such as labour intensive reporting processes, lack of initiative and reputational risk. Also, it is argued that the standard is not fair and applicable for all the countries and companies. Countries national laws may not always go hand in hand with the standard. For example, the requirements for green buildings are seen as challenging in the Nordics. If these challenges are not taken into consideration, Nordic green bond issuers fear that the market will not grow, but instead decrease. Additionally, Nordic green bond issuers argue the adoption of the EU GBS is not a guarantee for issuers. Bigger institutes are seen to be early adopters. For other issuers investor requirement and positive impact on their company reputation is seen as the key drivers for adoption of the standard.

Mandatory IFRS Adoption and Real/Accruals Bases Earnings Management in the UK

Here, the link between the mandatory adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and Real Earnings Management (REM), as well as Accrual Earnings Management (AEM), will be examined for non-financial listed firms in the London Stock Exchange. Robust regression analysis of the mandatory IFRS adoption will be conducted on the panel data, as well as earnings management using three AEM models and three REM models. Mixed results with respect to the qualities of AEM and REM were notably garnered, with mandatory IFRS adoption positively relating to the Roychowdhury of abnormal cash flow and the Roychowdhury of abnormal production. Meanwhile, the Roychowdhury of abnormal discretionary expenses, standard Jones, and Kothari negatively related to mandatory IFRS adoption, whilst modified Jones showed an insignificant relation to mandatory IFRS adoption. Changes in IFRS adoption and guidelines for UK firms may have an impact on AEM and REM, and, as predicted, mandatory IFRS adoption mostly affects the Kothari model followed by the standard Jones model as proxies for accounting earnings quality.

Discriminating between Islamic and Conventional banks in term of cost efficiency with combination of credit risk and interest rate margin in the GCC countries: Does Arab Spring revolution matter?

This study aims to test the contagion effect of the Arab Spring revolution in the GCC countries on discrimination between Islamic and conventional banks in terms of cost efficiency, and to test how prudential factors can influence this comparison. We used the stochastic frontier of Battese and Coelli (1995) to measure the cost efficiency of both Islamic and conventional banks in the GCC countries during 2006_ 2015 (before the Arab revolution 2006-2010 and after the Arab revolution 2011-2015). Second, we used a logit model to discriminate between Islamic and conventional banks in terms of cost efficiency combined with credit risk, regulatory capital and interest margin. Third, we finally test the convergence and divergence between Islamic and Conventional banks by measuring the probability of having Islamic/conventional activities for both banks. We have shown that there is no absolute difference in terms of cost efficiency between Islamic and conventional banks. This difference can be observed through the credit risk taking but not through the interest rate margin. In addition, Islamic banks have taken advantage from the event of the Arab Spring revolution, compared to conventional ones, by being more efficient through risk mitigating due to their participatory financial product. Unlike previous research, we have used a cost efficiency measurement following Battese and Coelli’s (1995) model and we have incorporated it in a logit model, in the context of crisis. Cost efficiency is combined with a set of prudential factors to determine their effect on the convergence/divergence between Islamic and conventional bank.

Analysis of Option Trading Strategies Based on the Relation of Implied and Realized S&P500 Volatilities

In this paper, we examine the performance of certain short option trading strategies on the S&P500 with backtesting based on historical option price data. Some of these strategies show significant outperformance in relation to the S&P500 index. We seek to explain this outperformance by modeling the negative correlation between the S&P500 and its implied volatility (given by the VIX) and through Monte Carlo simulation. We also provide free testing software and give an introduction to its use for readers interested in running further backtests on their own.

Are Strategies for International Diversification by Country, Industry and Region Equivalent?

In this study, we examine whether international portfolio diversification still matters despite an increase in the cross-country correlations of assets returns. More specifically, we explain why an increase in global return correlations does not necessarily imply a reduction in the benefits of international portfolio diversification. We also propose to compare empirically two traditional strategies of international diversification (by country and industry) in addition to a new strategy (by region) using two different methodological approaches, namely the mean variance spanning and multivariate cointegration analysis. Over the full sample period (1994- 2008), our results suggest that the three strategies of international diversification remain effective despite the secular increase in the cross-country return correlations. When we divide the sample into two different sub-periods (1994-2000 and 2000-2008), the findings indicate that the strategy based on regional diversification proved to be a new competing strategy during the second period in comparison to the other two traditional strategies.